Farming and stuff

I'm branching this topic because it's completely left the court decision on the Ruataniwha land swap. .... @geeves: "Artificial meat has been around for 10 years or more under the name tvp. Its made from soy. How many times have you willingly eaten it? I suspect not many. Its even sold dehy so ideal for tramping but still we wont eat the stuff." On the other hand, various food additives have been around for ages and everyone eats them unless they go to conscious and difficult effort to avoid the massive portion of processed foods they're in. Maybe you'll still buy cow's milk in a bottle for home use in NZ, where you actually know and care that you're using milk, but if milk can eventually be produced synthetically such that it's chemically identical, or close enough, there are plenty motivations for upstream manufacturers and other food providers (cafes, restaurants, fast food) to use it. It's probably far cheaper, it'll be easier to modify chemically to avoid people's allergies, it'll probably have a better long term reputation for good hygiene (and so be preferable for every industry with food safety obligations), and likely a better environmental record. That risks completely undercutting the bulk of the global dairy industry in a matter of years if it gets going. I read the Fed Farmers response to all of this from when it hit the news a couple of years ago. It's basically "it's not real and not proven and so we're completely un-worried". http://www.newshub.co.nz/business/nz-farmers-not-worried-about-artificial-milk-2014071307 Andrew Hoggard wrote a lengthier mocking tribute at http://www.fedfarm.org.nz/publications/opinion-editorials/article.asp?id=1716 He seems to be mocking it on the grounds that "stuff like this has never worked before", but doesn't really address details of what science might actually be doing when he's not looking. It mightn't become an issue, but the response didn't inspire me with confidence that Fonterra has any strategy nor clear understanding that the global industry it's participating in isn't entirely about milk.